In a data transfer system, data packets that are transmitted from one hardware device to another are often buffered to establish an efficient data flow and to prevent data from being lost based on uneven processing capabilities between the devices. One example of a data transfer protocol is a credit flow control protocol in which credits and debits are transmitted between the devices along with the data packets to control times at which data is to be released from a data buffer. A given data buffer can include a plurality of individually addressable locations in which a fundamental unit of data, typically known as a flow control digit or “flit”, of the data packets can be stored. Because flits of data may not be read from the data buffer in the same order in which they are written, the associated hardware device can access the flits of data within using pointers that are a record of the addressable location for each individual flit. Therefore, to access a data packet from a buffer, the hardware device can employ a number of pointers corresponding to a respective number of flits of the data packet to find and retrieve each of the flits of the data packet from the data buffer based on each of the respective pointers.